New ‘Alice’ Information Released

Written by Hugh Milligan | 20 July 2010

Early last year, EA announced that it had signed a publishing deal for an all-new title based on American McGee’s Alice with Spicy Horse, a development team started by McGee in 2007. Few details were provided, except that McGee would return as creative director and that the game would be released for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Now we’ve finally been given a glimpse into Alice’s warped mind once again, as the publisher has disclosed general plot info, a teaser trailer and some early screenshots that hopefully give a sense of the game’s art direction and improved visuals.

For those of you unfamiliar with the original, American McGee’s Alice was a delightfully perverse action-platformer based on a psychological interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s beloved novels (which, let’s face it, were conceived under the influence of some pretty heavy opiates anyway).

After surviving a disastrous house fire that claims both her parents, Alice enters a catatonic state and is committed to an asylum, where little hope is held for her recovery. Behind her blank expression, she retreats inside herself and returns to Wonderland, a realm once imagined in her childhood. She quickly finds, however, that Wonderland is wondrous no more; like the rest of her psyche, it has been twisted by feelings of grief and remorse into a truly nightmarish construct, where her own self-destructive emotions have taken the form of grotesque monsters. Locked in battle with the Red Queen and her ‘feircilicious’ Jabberwock, Alice fights not for her life but for her own sanity.

No wonder she's institutionalised - Alice clearly isn't playing with a full deck here.

Even though Alice eventually triumphs over the Red Queen (and herself), it appears that her recovery is far from over, judging from this plot synopsis posted on EA's official site (http://www.ea.com/alice):

"Eleven years ago a horrific fire took Alice’s family from her and left her terribly burned—and her mind terribly scarred. Afterwards she was confined to Rutledge Asylum, struggling to come to terms with her demons by slipping into her fantasy world of Wonderland. Now, after ten years, she has finally secured her release--yet she still bears the heavy psychological burden of that tragic event.

In Alice: Madness Returns, Alice is released from the asylum to a London psychiatrist’s care. As nightmarish hallucinations continue to haunt her and invade her reality, she seeks to understand her torment in order to recover herself. Her mind in tatters, she is unable to resolve the fear and neuroses prompted by her strange memories, dreams, and visions. Her relocation to London seems only to add to their number and intensity.

Perhaps she’ll do better in Wonderland. She always has. She travels there, seeking what the “real” world can’t provide: security, knowledge, and the truth about the past. But in her absence, Wonderland too has suffered. Something has gone horribly wrong, and now a great evil is descending upon what once was her beautiful refuge.

Can Alice save Wonderland—and herself—from the madness that consumes them both?"

The new title, called Alice: Madness Returns, has no official release date, but it's coming along nicely by the looks of things. I don’t mind saying just how much I loved the original Alice, and how thrilled I am that a sequel is now on the horizon. The remaining screenshot and a rather disturbing teaser trailer follow. Any other fans out there? C'mon, show me some love.

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